Technical Field
The subject matter of the present disclosure relates to lamps and other lighting devices, and in one particular aspect, to systems and methods that monitor operation of lamps in order to assign a monetary value to bill to end users and consumers.
Description of Related Art
Despite advances in energy efficient lamps and lighting devices and concerns with the impact of unfettered energy consumption on the environment, consumers often fail to embrace more energy efficient products. Consequently, over the past half century, the government of the United States of America has initiated several programs aimed at encouraging individuals and companies to utilize more energy efficient products, wherein such governmental programs included Demand Side Measures and the Green Lights Initiative. Demand Side Measures benefitted end users by means of a series of potential available rebates applicable to the purchase of energy efficient lighting systems and other energy efficient systems, pieces of equipment, and appliances, wherein such rebates to the end users were funded often by utility companies and power suppliers. One of the primary objectives of the Green Lights Initiative was to encourage corporations and other commercial establishments to retrofit their facilities and their offices with energy efficient lighting systems and to install energy efficient lighting systems during construction of new facilities and offices.
While solid-state lighting technologies, e.g., light-emitting diodes (LED) devices, often have superior performance to incandescent lamps with respect to useful lifetime (e.g. its lumen maintenance and its reliability over time) and higher electrical efficiency (e.g. Lumens per Electrical Watt (LPW)), the majority of households and commercial establishments continue to use incandescent lamps. The lifetime of incandescent lamps is typically in the range about 1,000 to 5,000 hours as opposed to the lifetime of solid-state lighting devices, which often exceeds 25,000 hours. The electrical efficiency for an incandescent or halogen lamp is typically in the range of 10-30 LPW, whereas the electrical efficiency of solid-state lighting devices is currently in the range of 40-100 LPW or higher.
Unfortunately, solid-state lighting devices are more costly to manufacture than incandescent lamps. These costs pass to the consumer in the form of initial purchase prices for solid-state lighting devices that are greater than the initial purchase price of an incandescent lamp. The higher purchase prices often drive consumers away from solid-state lighting devices, even though the total expense to the consumer over the lifetime of the solid-state lighting device is less than the total expense to the consumer over the lifetime of an incandescent lamp.
It is desirable, therefore, to encourage households and businesses to convert to and to install more energy efficient lamps. Thus, there is a need for systems and methods that promote use of these energy efficient lamps without the barrier of initial purchase price, while also allowing manufacturers and service providers (e.g., utilities) to recoup the cost to manufacture and/or to distribute the energy efficient lamps.